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Course Title: Microfluidics for Diagnostics

Basic Principles in Lab-on-a-Chip (LOAC) Technologies for the Study of Circulating Biomarkers: Applications in Liquid Biopsies

The goal of this short course is to introduce participants into the burgeoning area of liquid biopsies and the technologies used for the isolation of the markers (Circulating Tumor Cells, CTCs, cell-free DNA, cfDNA, and exosomes) directly from whole blood comprising the liquid biopsy. The major technology platform that will be discussed includes lab-on-a-chip (LOAC) platforms.

This Short Course will be Broken Down into Two General Areas

Operational characteristics of LOAC platforms and their appropriateness for selecting rare markers from whole blood

Application of LOAC technologies for the selection of rare circulating biomarkers from whole blood

The Topic Areas Addressed in this Short Course are Outlined Below

Basic Fundamentals of LOAC Platforms

Brief introduction to the analytical challenges with the isolation of circulating markers from whole blood: CTCs, cfDNA and exosomes

Introduction to LOAC technologies; what can they provide with respect to the analysis of rare circulating markers and comparison to benchtop procedures

Materials for LOAC

Fabrication technologies

Micromilling

Lithography

Dry/wet etching

Molding

Metrology and fluid characteristics in microfluidics

Electrokinetic versus hydrodynamic flow

Basic fluid and particle (cell) transport

Application of LOC Technologies for the Isolation of Circulating Biomarkers from Whole Blood

Basic components of the liquid biopsy

CTCs

What is a CTC including different types?

Clinical information from CTCs

Benchtop techniques for the isolation of CTCs

cfDNA

Characteristics of cfDNA

How much circulating tumor DNA is found in whole blood?

What clinical information can be garnered from cfDNA?

QIAGEN-based techniques for isolating cfDNA

Isolation from plasma is required

Exosomes

What is an exosome and how is it generated?

Physical characteristics of exosomes

Ultra-centrifugation methods for isolating exosomes

Why is it necessary to isolate exosomes from plasma?

LOAC platforms for isolating plasma from whole blood

Skimming technologies

Filtering-based approaches

Throughput – how much blood is necessary to search for rare markers?

LOAC platforms for the analysis of CTCs

Biological-based techniques

Sinusoidal chip

Micro-pillar based chip with herringbone mixer

Nano-pillar chips for isolating CTCs

iChip

Physical-based techniques

Microfluidics using dielectrophoresis

Size-based separation using inertial lift forces or micro-pores

LOAC platforms for the analysis of cfDNA

Techniques that use magnetic beads

Solid-phase extraction of cfDNA

LOAC platforms for the analysis of exosomes

Centrifugation-based techniques

Affinity selection of disease-specific exosomes

Micro-pillar technologies

Solid-phase affinity selection

All course delegates receive the presentations from this course as well as reviews, publications and background material which are excellent resources for business plans, R&D and investor presentations.

This training course includes coffee and a breakfast snack plus lunch for all course delegates.